Hope Solo: America’s Most Complicated and Compelling Olympian?

“It’s a high to be loathed,” C. Montgomery Burns, super-villain of The Simpsons, once sang.Mr. Burns’ catchy tune extols the good in being bad, explaining how he gets drunk on boos. It’s a little bit similar to what United States Women’s National Team goalkeeper Hope Solo said when asked about the boos reigning down upon her during group play at 2016 Summer Olympics.

“If [the fans] are having fun, great. I like a loud stadium,” Solo said after giving an MVP-like performance in the #1 ranked USWNT’s 1-0 triumph over #3 France on Saturday.

It happened in Wednesday night’s Olympic opening winning victory over New Zealand, and you can be certain it will happen again when the United States plays against Colombia in Manaus on Tuesday night (6 p.m. ET; NBCSN).

The boos persist despite Solo explaining her comments,

“It’s not like I just made this up,” Solo told the media. “I listened to the CDC. I listened to the World Health Organization. I spoke to experts.

“I wish people understood that I did my due diligence before coming to Brazil. It was a decision that I had to make alongside my husband. It’s not something I just spoke about without getting educated on, it was something very serious because I do want to start a family.”

Solo is much more than the world’s greatest goalkeeper and perhaps one of the best to ever play the position. She’s a polarizing figure with a very checkered past and a tendency to speak up and tell it like it is. Sports are more dominated by press conference cliches than ever before. While almost every other athlete strives to speak without saying anything at all, Solo delivers socially-relevant candor.

Bold caught up with Solo after the U.S. defeated South Africa 1-0 at Soldier Field in Chicago. It was the penultimate match for the USWNT before they departed for Rio and it saw Solo notch both her 150th career win, and her 100th international shutout, something no keeper, man or woman has ever done.

“I don’t think that anyone is 100% feeling great about everything, I know that I’m not,” she said.

“The lack of security is kind of…(pauses, sighs) I sat there in the meeting, and I’m like, look, I’m going to deal with the hotels that aren’t 5-stars. I’m going to deal with being in Brazil and perhaps dirty water, and dealing with Zika and I made the decision to deal with that, but I didn’t make the decision to deal with the lack of security, and for me that’s kind of like, enough is enough. We have to be secure as athletes.”

“It’s a movement, that’s for sure,” Solo said. “It’s a movement that started long before us and I think we’re just kind of carrying the torch, and the more we discuss it, the more people can become educated. It’s not based off of opinion, or what people think of the women’s game versus the men’s game.

“It’s based on actual facts and I think the more we talk about those facts, the more we will educate everybody.”

The old cliche “stick to sports,” certainly doesn’t apply to Solo, and hopefully more sports figures will speak their minds on social issues, like Solo does, so that the anachronistic saying will finally fade in time. Sports, like everything else in life, do not exist in a vacuum free from sociopolitical influences.

Despite her transcendent dominance on the pitch, and her admirable work to bring social justice off-the-pitch, Solo is still not a good role model. This becomes evident when you look at the legal rap sheet of both her and her husband, former NFL player Jerramy Stevens.

So while some Americans will feel the need to root for her unconditionally, perhaps galvanized by the boos from fans of opposing nations, other USA fans, aware of her issues, will find cognitive dissonance in cheering for Solo.

In other words, whether you love, hate or feel conflicted towards Solo, you certainly have an opinion. She’s the most compelling and complicated figure on not just the women’s soccer team, but any Olympian competing for the United States in Rio right now.

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Paul M. Banks is a regular contributor to RedEye, the Chicago Tribune's youth-oriented daily newspaper. He appears regularly on WGN's CLTV (usually wearing a sport coat with skinny jeans) and KOZN 1620 The Zone. Banks previously contributed to the NBC Chicago and Washington Times websites. He currently owns and manages The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network and News Now. Growing up with three older sisters and no brothers, he inevitably ended up a member of #TeamOverDressed